MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said Monday that they had launched an investigation against seven major world banks on suspicion of collusion and manipulation of precious metal prices.
“COMCO has launched today an investigation against two Swiss banks, UBS and Julius Baer, as well as the foreign financial institutions Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Mitsui,” the watchdog said in a statement.
The Commission added that it is investigating whether these banks came to an illegal agreement to affect global market prices of gold, silver, platinum and palladium.
In February, the US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) opened an investigation against 10 financial institutions, including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC over the possible manipulation of the precious metals market.